Nearly every month, it seems, another establishment Jewish organization launches some new, well-funded initiative to involve young American Jews like me in traditional Jewish institutions. As a 26-year-old American Jew, I appreciate these efforts — particularly those that focus on creating meaningful Jewish experiences that move beyond a simplistic focus on Jewish continuity.
As I watch the leaders of some of the same organizations react to President Barack Obama’s Middle East agenda, however, I wonder if they realize the damage they’re doing to their well-intentioned efforts to reverse the exodus of young Jews from the traditional American Jewish community.
David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, recently told The New York Jewish Week that he is “hearing a growing number of questions and concerns about the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told the paper that “judging from phone calls… there is an increasing unease” about the Obama administration’s approach. The Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Abraham Foxman, for his part, complained that “all of a sudden, they’re treating Israel like everyone else. I find that disturbing.”
These men’s personal acquaintances might be feeling unease about President Obama’s push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But many American Jews, and especially younger ones, are feeling a sense of relief.
Consider, for a moment, the world in which my generation is growing up. Previously well-defined boundaries between ethnicities, religions and countries are blurring. The relevance of large, traditional institutions is waning. We are creating a whole new fabric of Jewish life with each other and with other groups outside traditional frameworks and lines of communication.
The latest United Jewish Communities report on National Jewish Population Survey data shows we are less likely to give to traditional Jewish organizations than were previous generations. This doesn’t mean we are tuning out from Judaism — we are simply finding different ways to express it. We are finding meaning in an emerging new Judaism of independent minyanim, social justice and alternative Jewish culture. As social media expert Allison Fine wrote in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, if young people are “unhappy with their reception by nonprofit organizations, they will simply start their own efforts — overnight, online, at almost no cost.”
Many of these new communities and organizations are more committed to making Judaism personally meaningful than to simply pursuing Jewish continuity, and aren’t necessarily housed inside traditional Jewish institutions (though they may be funded by forward-thinking Jewish philanthropies). Many of us who are active in these new endeavors are connected to and care about Israel. We hope for a lasting peace, and believe that both sides must play a role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For many young Jews, Obama embodies our values. He leads an interconnected world, dealing with myriad and difficult problems pragmatically and honestly. As a symbol of a new era of racial relations, he is uniquely positioned to help peacefully resolve ethnic strife and conflict abroad.
We are hopeful about Obama’s efforts to bring peace to Israel, to secure the state as a Jewish, democratic homeland, and to fulfill the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people. His major speech in Cairo — where he spoke out against Palestinian incitement and violence, against Holocaust denial, defended Israel’s right to exist and its security, and called for a complete freeze on Israeli settlements over the Green Line — represented the views of large majorities of American Jews — and my generation in particular.
Some longtime Jewish communal leaders undoubtedly have legitimate policy disagreements with the president and his team about how best to advance American and Israeli interests in the Middle East. They should feel free to express those disagreements, just as I am free to express my own.
But given the combination of my generation’s attraction to President Obama and our inherent distrust of old-style top-down institutions, Jewish communal leaders should consider that the more aggressively they criticize this president’s sensible pro-Israel policies, the more they will alienate us from their aging institutions.
Isaac Luria is the campaigns director of J Street.
Amen!!!
yasher koyach. AdMoR Isaac Luria has apparently gotten over the whole shviras ha-kelim thing.
Thank you Isaac for your voice of sanity.
Beautifully said, Isaac. Kol ha'kavod.
Yes, we need J Street to stand up against the verkramptes in our community like Alan and Frank, may, as the Rambam would have said, their names be ground to dust!
This 48-year old Jewish American is on Obama's side too. It's not just you young whippersnappers :-)
Sure, it makes sense for fellow Jews to support a buddy of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rev. Wright, the greater Islamic world, etc. After all, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
sephardiman, anyone:
what does VERKRAMPTE mean?
I should have known at the beginning that Luria is a campaign director of J Street to save my time instead of reading the usual brainwashing of leftist propaganist.
Let me just ask you how really Jewish the so-called younger generations are, and how Jewish J Street is ? The answer, as everybody knows, is not much. Basically, they are ex-Jews, the outcome of two or three generations of rampant assimilation, intermarriage and Reform/Conservative retreat on any traditional Jewish concern or value. No wonder they are more attracted by Obama than by Israel.
And by the way, talking about "verkrampte" is just obscene. Israel is not South Africa, and Zionism is not apartheid. The mere fact you use that terminology shows how estranged you are from true Jewish/Israeli realities and sensibilities.
Speak for yourself, Isaac Luria. I'm not sure which young people you claim to represent, but you offer not a shred of evidence that your views are shared by anyone but yourself. Maybe George Soros.
Those who write off Isaac Luria's thoughts as anti-Israel have forgotten two wonderful signature Jewish traditions: the prophets who were not afraid to speak truth to power (Israeli kings and the majority of the Jewish people), and our longstanding Jewish belief that truth is arrived at after open debate. The issues are not whether J-street is sufficiently Jewish or leftist -- it's rather whether their views hold water, and if not, why not. Indeed, I criticize J-Street for having incorrect facts and backward policy statements on Iran on their website. Are they going to join those that the Jerusalem Post (July 16), quoting another report, says may be willing to trade an Israeli freeze on settlements for US support of a self-defeating attack on Iran?
Thanks Isaac for this important article! I think this article is emblematic of where young people are heading today and reports about young Jews support your conclusions. I have felt for many years along that the mainstream Jewish organizations don't represent me and have nothing to offer me. My circle of friends includes many that participate and attend minyans, spent time in Israel and are working toward social and economic justice through a Jewish lens. I believe my generation will be leaving the old and stodgy organizations in the dust and joining and creating new organizations which speak to the real needs we and society have. The movement has already begun with Jstreet, AJWS, Jewish Funds For Justice, AVODAH, Hazon and Encounter. I look forward to working to continue this movement where we have concern for bringing about an end to conflicts, and how we treat our fellow human beings and the earth.
Ahem, Obama's fast track on everything is unfortunately the wrong track on everything, and his position vis-a-vis Israel is anything but sensible. Just ask your relatives and friends in Israel, where reality IS reality. J-Street "credibility" plays into the hands of the idealistic and uninformed. Without Israel, there is no Judaism, nor is there any place safe on this planet for Jews. When you're old enough, you'll come to your senses. Meanwhile, we more "mature" adults who've been around since 1948 will continue to carry the ball, while you young people fed by the leftist, anti-semitic idealogues on our campuses still get to be just ballboys.
An acrostic
Boychick, aligning yourself with shallow fellows and expedient pols (Unless you do this to be arbitrary and disrespectful): Let us examine your point of view. Let me ask, “What experience have you that makes you Suspect your elders without engaging them?” Honesty should control your flippant view that they know little. Is J Street more interested in itself Than our community as a whole?
I share your cynicism in the old whinings So either abandon your elders or Say to them, “You out of date and I reject you And I have no reverence for you who came to escape the Tsars Concern yourself no longer about protecting me or my world.
Catch you sleeping as Nazis, Muftis, Panthers, or Klansmen sneak up Lighting their path with bones of our ancestors Or Work to understand napping European Jews making excuses are why you should see Now you see what we worry about.
An acrostic
Boychick, aligning yourself with shallow fellows and expedient pols (Unless you do this to be arbitrary and disrespectful): Let us examine your point of view. Let me ask, “What experience have you that makes you Suspect your elders without engaging them?” Honesty should control your flippant view that they know little. Is J Street more interested in itself Than our community as a whole?
I share your cynicism in the old whinings So either abandon your elders or Say to them, “You out of date and I reject you And I have no reverence for you who came to escape the Tsars Concern yourself no longer about protecting me or my world.
Catch you sleeping as Nazis, Muftis, Panthers, or Klansmen sneak up Lighting their path with bones of our ancestors Or Work to understand napping European Jews making excuses are why you should see Now you see what we worry about.
If there is a reason to be a Jew other than gathering together to avoid destruction, if Judaism is to attract the youth with something more than mutual fear, then the obviously contradictory example set by Israeli foreign policy must be addressed head on. The youth aren't as afraid as older generations. This is good. If the youth are not defined as much by the Shoah as by the Civil Rights movement, this is good. This is the gift you have given them. Your children aren't turning their back on you; they are strengthened by the security you have given them, and they yearn for righteousness that you have also promised them. It is a luxury, to be sure, to want what is good and not just what is safe, but let's lavish this on our youth, like a fancy Bar Mitzvah, let's let them demand we live up to the Mitzvot.
Isaac, thank you for your candor and insight. One question for your critics: Why do those with opposing views lean so heavily on character assassination? Luria, Ben Ami and even Obama are following in a sacred Jewish tradition of "wrestling" with divine and difficult issues, NOT hatching some insidious leftist conspiracy. Far more reckless and dangerous to Israel's security is the argument that "real" Jews must be ultra orthodox and must uncompromisingly embrace the "greater Israel" project. This argument grows very thin as Israel's economy sinks, held hostage to extremists and idealogues who represent an ever shrinking perspective of Jewish citizens both in Israel and in the United States. Whether fanatics (on both sides) like it or not, ultimately Israel's security depends on making peace with Palestine and creating two bordering states. This concept is embraced by the MAJORITY across the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance and can no longer be marginalized. I applaud J-street for saying it out loud and giving articulate expression to what so many deeply thoughtful, Jewish "patriots" have been thinking for some time. Keep up the good work!
...and the genocidal, terroristic enemies surrounding Israel are ROTFLTAO at the gullible, brainwashed, cowardly JINOs who wouldn't dare criticize B. Hussein Oblahblah (or any other person "of color", for that matter)! By the way, would one of you secular-progressive, multicultural, diversity/inclusion, "peace at any cost" sissies kindly tell us what the "civil rights movement" has ever done to benefit the Jews (spare us the same old stories about Jewish sacrifices to redress the evils of slavery). No wonder most of the world laughs at the Jewish People...articles like this written by a J-Street parrot are proof that the next generation will continue to sell out the Jewish State of Israel and the Jewish People in favor of assimilation and gentilization. How pathetic!
Yes to the younger generation that has fallen in love with charisma and is flirting with a false messiah. May you get what you deserve. Once again the blind leading the blind.
J street is just another radical left-wing camp rejected by the traditional left-wing supporters in America because of their hatred of Jews and pretends to support Israel like every good anti-Zionist.
While trying to maintain their position, J St. is embracing every loud-mouth, angry, often unreasonable character, including Congresswomen Donna Edwards.
Most recently on Chris Matthews's TV show, she denounced Obama for not releasing ALL the torture pictures. When asked if that would not set off riots before his visit to Cairo, she answered: No, the Muslims would respect us for coming clean.
So she is a maven on the Middle East in all aspects -- except knowledge.
While trying to maintain their position, J St. is embracing every loud-mouth, angry, often unreasonable character, including Congresswomen Donna Edwards.
Most recently on Chris Matthews's TV show, she denounced Obama for not releasing ALL the torture pictures. When asked if that would not set off riots before his visit to Cairo, she answered: No, the Muslims would respect us for coming clean.
So she is a maven on the Middle East in all aspects -- except knowledge.
While trying to maintain their position, J St. is embracing every loud-mouth, angry, often unreasonable character, including Congresswomen Donna Edwards.
Most recently on Chris Matthews's TV show, she denounced Obama for not releasing ALL the torture pictures. When asked if that would not set off riots before his visit to Cairo, she answered: No, the Muslims would respect us for coming clean.
So she is a maven on the Middle East in all aspects -- except knowledge.
J Street has quite a narcissist as its campaigns director
I'm 81 years old, long out of out of pigtails and witnessed a lot of history in my life. To begin with, I was born in Germany and - fortunately - escaped in time. The minute I set foot in the USA (1938) I knew where my political tent would be set up: on the left, forever. I had the images of Jewish-American radicals to guide me, and I've never been sorry that I followed in their path, from the Civil War in Spain against the evils of McCarthy's long legacy, with the Civil Rights movement, in which my then husband, a rabbi, marched alongside Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel, even to the present, where I have wept over what Israel, as a nation, has become. I am definitely a Jew of the diaspora,and I am proud of it - though I admire the many good people in Israel who work for peace in midst of all the zealots. Despite our many sufferings the diaspora gave great things to the world.There was no need to be ashamed of the killing field that is Gaza, nor the Wall and the settlers and the religious fanatics. None like Moses Mendelssohn, Martin Buber, or Siegmund Freud will ever come out of that culture. Thank you, J Street, for speaking not only to the young but to old believers like me. Your detractors all show their true colors by the coarseness of their language, their invective and their contempt for Obama and those of us who support him. Their rage unmasks them and holds their bigotry to the light. Keep up the good work!
Yes, Lurie, you self-hating schmuck, you have voted alright. Against fellow Jews who have a right to live on their own land. You, of the Nazi collaborator Soros paid off Judenrat Strasse have expressed solidarity with a guy who sat 20 years in a pew - you ought to be ashamed of yourself, Silvia - especially given your experience - and never said bo peep or spoke out against the Nazi of Color who ironically calls himself Obama's daddy.
Not only does Judenrat Strasse - Ben-Ami, Lurie, the Chaim Rumkowskis of this day - support an anti-Semite who for three months straight blasted "natural growth" in Jewish communities or had his cronies do so, but was as stone silent as he was in that damn pew when his friends in Iran murdered Neda Soltan and others. They also support the kidnappers, rocketeers, and horse killers of Hamas.
Gaza, Silvia, you ignorant woman, is only a killing field because Hamas and Palestinian Muslims will it to be. Sharon drove Jews out of Gush Katif over three years ago, there should have been peace - but do tell that to the residents of Sderot - which, by the way, is well within the pre-1967 borders - a note for you self-hating scum and Judenrat Strasse aficinados - ask them if three years of rockets before Operation Cast Lead is peace.
You who support Lurie and Ben-Ami and applaud Obama would have voted for - well, the guy Silvia claims to have "fortunately" avoided. And you know that damn well.
Right on Alan. My late parents read and cherished "der Yiddishe Forvertz" when it was still a Jewish Newspaper. Now it is apparently produced by Woody Allen -type Schmucks with no self respect or integrity, but interested in putting out this self-hating leftist drek.
Dave.
Thank You very kindly for your support. I cannot believe how many ignorant, self-hating Jews there are out there, well, maybe I shouldn't say that because 78 percent voted for the coward in the pew and his anti-Semitic associations.
And...unfortunately are giving mental midgets like Luria legitimacy. 15, 20 years ago, even a Liberal Jewish American would have expressed outrage over a J Street or the Forward's now extremely Lefty bent (my Zaydeh read it regularly, and I'm sure, as a devout supporter of Israel, he is turning over in his grave).
Now, even a Nazi-collaborationist funded organization comprised 100 percent of self-haters and arrogant moral relativists (read: retards) is applauded and given legitimacy because the Messiah, the same guy who applauded his "daddy" Jeremiah Wright for 20 years has blessed it.
Never mind Judenrat Strasse equates Israel with Hamas, and ignores three years of rocketing Sderot, kidnapping and torturing Shalit (if he's still alive),or using horses to deliver bombs to Jewish communities. Heck, they won't even demand Palestinian disarmament. But hey, Obama blessed them - so they must be ok, that is to the typical self-hater and their allies.
Sick. Very sick.
But thanks for standing firm and being supportive. Much appreciated!
Note the angry tone of detractors of J Street and their growing support among younger American Jews. It is the same trend we find among listeners to Fox News and Rush. The vitriol indicates frustration and impotence in the presence of a world that has passed them by. If Israel is to survive in spite of itself, it will be partly because American Jews are no longer knee jerk supporters of troubling Israeli policies regarding Palestinians and Orthodox religious hegemony (this includes the Likud and Labor party).
For Shai, the newest Leftard and his fellow self-haters.
I suggest they read the latest edition the Jerusalem Post online, because they and Mr. Luria are going to be in for a very rude surprise.
Ehud Olmert, no darling of the so-called Right. The sidekick of Sharon who bulldozed Gush Katif, who was in charge of the forced removal of Jews from Amona, who authorized mass exchanges of prisoners, including the terrible release of the babykiller Kuntar for battered corpses; the same Olmert who basically allowed Sderot, well inside 1967 Israel, to endure THREE YEARS OF NON-STOP ROCKETING from those "peace lovers" in Gaza, and did virtually nothing to succor Gilad Shalit.
And the same Olmert who was willing to cede vast portions of Judea-Samaria to an Abbas who didn't want it, but wanted all of Israel, well, even THIS Leftist Arrogant Coward is blasting Obama, his fellow Leftist Arrogant Coward for pushing a Judenrein Judea-Samaria.
Ain't that rich. OLMERT BLASTING OBAMA.
www.jpost.com
Better read it and weep, Shai, and the rest of you self-haters. Oh, don't forget to spew Fox News, Limbaugh, Neo-Con and all of your other hateful stuff. Admit it, you and the Nazi-funded J Street don't even want an Israel. Trouble is, when Israel disappears, your own existence as assimilated crap artists will be at stake too.
Care for that mustard on your Hebrew National, Shai, or the rest, and don't forget that glass of milk. Maybe Olmert might NOT join you this time, but we can always offer you diapers and pacifiers for your kind of Leftard Self-Hating rot.
Obama will be out in two years or less. Then we will have a REAL American President who not only will be very supportive of Israel and yes, Settlements, and won't be paying Hamas 900 mil of our money - but one who will also declare the Soros-paid Kapos of J Street irrelevant.
The true youth and true Jews are speaking, and we're NOT speaking Judenrat Strasse, boychickies.
Yo, Silvia,
Yes, you Silvia. E tu honey...
www.jpost.com
OLMERT BLASTS OBAMA ON SETTLEMETS.
Better read it, lady with a small l. Seems even someone who was willing to accept the corpses of dead Jews for live babykillers, a guy who ok'ed mass releases of terrorists and arms transfers to the Palestinians and let Sderot endure 3 years of bombardment for "peace", has a problem with his fellow arrogant Leftist coward Obama.
Methinks too, that the Nazi-collaborator paid dolts and kapos of the PRO-HAMAS, Anti-Israel J Street had better stop their lying and open their eyes as well, lest they be exposed for the frauds and liars they really are.
That should have read:
www.jpost.com
OLMERT BLASTS OBAMA ON SETTLEMENTS.
Just to set the record straight before some Leftard spews I can't spell - just like them.
Alan:
aren't you a Jew for Jesus?
Norm, Dave, Mike Sloan, Steve, kurveh Esther:
The late, great Israeli (Orthodox!) thinker coined a term for people like you: Judaeo-Nazis.
And, unlike yourselves, he actually lived in Israel and was knowledgeable about Judaism and Jewish history.
Do any of you even know the difference - without cheating by looking it up- between kiddush, kaddish and Kedushah? I doubt it.
So, a word to the wise: get your shiny, brown proboscises out of Mort Klein's posterior and come up for air!
...and of course, how could I forget to add Alan's name to the above list of moshav letzim!
give up? That great Orthodox philosophical giant was professor Yeshayahu Leibovitz.
Baruch, you sneeringly assume much of which you are wrong about. I have lived in Israel for many years and done military service. I lived there through many of the terrible and cataclysmic events such as the lOD AIRPORT MASSACRE, Yom Kippur war, various terrorist outrages, Freedom for Galilee. But leave it to a disciple of that old embittered misanthrope to smear those that he opposes. You reveal yourself as an ignoramus masquerading as an enlightened person Grow up and get an education and a life.
Interesting! My comment posted yesterday was removed sometime during last night. Some Forward flunkie found my words hit a little too close to home. Let me reprise my comments:
So, what else is new? There has long existed a core of 'useful idiot' Jews in the West who have been thoroughly indoctrinated and terminally brainwashed by Secular-Humanist ideology with its moral relativism take on all conflicts which decrees that the 'weaker' party is always to be seen as the 'victim.' These individuals are the perfect dupes for Obama's Marxist-Leninist oratorical jive. But, not too bother!
These 'Jews' and their descendants are destined to disappear from the Jewish nation as their kind have always assimilated into gentile society. The future of Jewish survival will rest on the same group of Jews who are proud to identify as Jews, who follow halacha and believe it is a mitzvot to once again be living as Jews in the nation of Israel.
Baruch,
Yeshoua Leibowitz was a NAZI himself. And so are YOU.
Piss off, your sick fascist self-hater.
iphi,
I'm certainly NOT but you're a JINO for Obama, which is virtually the same, unless you prefer Farrakhan. After all, HE DOES.
LOL.
Amazing, a wicked remnant of the Jewish-German socialist movement, the deciple of the Mendelsohn massive assimilation movement, who supported Stalin and the international Bolshevik movement, who brought on us (and are directly responsible for) the Holocaust Catastrophy, managed to escape Europe to continue spreading the communist virus here in the US. These self haters, helenized traitors, cold war soviet spies, are spreading the marxist ideology relentlesly on campuses and any place they can poison the minds of the youg generation. May history wash them away into its gutters as it did to their predecessors during the 18th,19th and the 20th century.
Dave and Daniel,
Welcome to the circus. The amount of self-haters and their friends who spout Jew-hate here is staggering, but typical and nothing new. Don't be surprised if the crybabies call upon the Forward censors to delete your posts, and don't be surprised if a post gets deleted. Just push back.
There's something to the lies of the Leftards. Some of them advocated harm to Bush, but if you oppose Obama they claim you want him dead. Some of them are the same crybabies who said Bush would build concentration camps for Leftards as well as Muslims via "The Patriotic Act", yet look at who is the greatest threat to our FREEDOMS nowadays...hint, not Bush, but the same lying moral retard who sat in a pew for 20 years and his buddy Cass Sunstein - who by the way is married to Samantha Power who advocated a USMC invasion of Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
Don't believe me, Leftards - go to youtube and find out.
These same Leftards applauded the Powers and Freemans and demand that Jews leave land that was theirs from time immemorial, but they themselves won't practice what they preach, given that they ILLEGALLY occupy Native American soil - that Kenyan Village Idiot does too, by the way. They are the same Leftards who equate Israel with Hamas as the Nazi-funded stooges at J Street do. But will never demand Palestinian compliance or an end to Palestinian terrorism.
Unfortunately self-haters didn't die with their like-minded friends in the collapse of the old Soviet Union. The Stalinist JINOs are still with us, and still behave as usual.
Dave and Daniel,
Welcome to the circus. The amount of self-haters and their friends who spout Jew-hate here is staggering, but typical and nothing new. Don't be surprised if the crybabies call upon the Forward censors to delete your posts, and don't be surprised if a post gets deleted. Just push back.
There's something to the lies of the Leftards. Some of them advocated harm to Bush, but if you oppose Obama they claim you want him dead. Some of them are the same crybabies who said Bush would build concentration camps for Leftards as well as Muslims via "The Patriotic Act", yet look at who is the greatest threat to our FREEDOMS nowadays...hint, not Bush, but the same lying moral retard who sat in a pew for 20 years and his buddy Cass Sunstein - who by the way is married to Samantha Power who advocated a USMC invasion of Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
Don't believe me, Leftards - go to youtube and find out.
These same Leftards applauded the Powers and Freemans and demand that Jews leave land that was theirs from time immemorial, but they themselves won't practice what they preach, given that they ILLEGALLY occupy Native American soil - that Kenyan Village Idiot does too, by the way. They are the same Leftards who equate Israel with Hamas as the Nazi-funded stooges at J Street do. But will never demand Palestinian compliance or an end to Palestinian terrorism.
Unfortunately self-haters didn't die with their like-minded friends in the collapse of the old Soviet Union. The Stalinist JINOs are still with us, and still behave as usual.
GRam, as a Jew who was born and raised in the American South I can tell you that the disproportionate Jewish presence in the Marxist-Leninist Bolshevik constellation, from which the Forward was born and is still a part of, has been a fact which is well-known by every Jew-hating organization in this country and abroad and which feeds and enables their existence.
Wow, Alan, I'm sorry that you live in a world full of Nazis and Bolsheviks and baby killers. It must be an unpleasant place for you.
If you are a Nationalist, then you have no laws to believe in but survival. If, however, you are a Jew, you believe in a G-d that is alive in every human being. A G-d that allows for the possibility of great transformations, like that of slaves to a free people. A G-d that opens your heart to feed and cloth the stranger. A G-d that evolved a creature that can imagine and work to create a peace-filled world based on love. Ba'yom ha hu yeheyeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad. Will you drop your fears and join in to the active responsibility to our people's history and future? You can start now (or stop saying prayers you don't believe, really). Go Isaac! Thank you for taking the kind of responsibility that we are required to preach as embodiments of the sacred.
If you are a Nationalist, then you have no laws to believe in but survival. If, however, you are a Jew, you believe in a G-d that is alive in every human being. A G-d that allows for the possibility of great transformations, like that of slaves to a free people. A G-d that opens your heart to feed and cloth the stranger. A G-d that evolved a creature that can imagine and work to create a peace-filled world based on love. Ba'yom ha hu yeheyeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad. Will you drop your fears and join in to the active responsibility to our people's history and future? You can start now (or stop saying prayers you don't believe, really). Go Isaac! Thank you for taking the kind of responsibility that we are required to preach as embodiments of the sacred.
If you are a Nationalist, then you have no laws to believe in but survival. If, however, you are a Jew, you believe in a G-d that is alive in every human being. A G-d that allows for the possibility of great transformations, like that of slaves to a free people. A G-d that opens your heart to feed and cloth the stranger. A G-d that evolved a creature that can imagine and work to create a peace-filled world based on love. Ba'yom ha hu yeheyeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad. Will you drop your fears and join in to the active responsibility to our people's history and future? You can start now (or stop saying prayers you don't believe, really). Go Isaac! Thank you for taking the kind of responsibility that we are required to preach as embodiments of the sacred.
Obama lost my respect when he went on a rant against NAFTA during the primary. On top of that, it took him less than a year to turn on marijuana advocates. When he wanted votes, he joked with them about his days smoking pot. Once in office, he laughed at the suggestion that he legalize it. You did get one thing right, Isaac Luria. It's very easy for people to make new, small groups for political change. I started www.youtube.com/user/LegalizeMarijuanaJD to promote the legalization of marijuana on the federal level, and other activists started Z street (ziostreet.wordpress.com) to support Israel.
It is nothing short disingenuous for you present yourself as a typical Jewish twenty something, when in far you are far from it. As a JStreet staffer, you are highly engaged and highly opinionated regarding a major Jewish issue. Your response to the mainstream Jewish community is hardly indicative of how the masses of youngs Jews today think.
I hope that JStreet has more integrity in its lobby efforts.
Your article sounds lovely- almost poetic- like the way many American Rabbis talk. Just one problem, like the message of so many American Rabbis- you are just plain wrong- though what you say "sounds so good".
Forcing Israel to accept a two-state situation one the other side doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State will only lead to a lot of bloodshed on both sides. That might not sound so nice, but that's at least the truth.
Dave Neil
Go J Street! As a 21 year-old American Jew I'd have to say I entirely agree with Isaac Luria.
The conservative nationalistic elements of the older generation often do far more damage than they realize.
Israel has only a very grim future unless it can achieve peace. That's not to say only Israel carries this responsibility -far from it- but it is in Israel's interest to have peace. Jewish identity here in the diaspora will be torn to shreds if this goes on much loner.
Iphi:
Fudge-packer Alan is not a J4J: you are confusing him with his brother Max. Alan is simply one of those Ortho deviants being targeted by Dov Hikind.
Clearly, Alan Norm, Dave, Mike Sloan, Steve, Esther do not know the difference between kiddush, kaddish and Kedushah! So now we know who the real JINOs are.
Norm, Dave, Mike Sloan, Steve, Esther: Jonathan Pollard could not have said what you all say, any better. Expect a visit from the FBI.
J Street and Mr. Luria ignore history and facts conveniently. We all want peace. But, since there are 2 sides, both sides must want it. Israel has repeatedly tried - offering all of the Jordanian/Egyptian conquered territory to the Palestinians - Arafat and Abbas have rejected every offer - and why? Because they don't want Israel/Jews on what they claim is their land - even though G-d gave it to us. Jihad is their only means to achieve their goal - no Israel. Why can't the leftists accept facts? Abbas just made the same statement - no Israel. They want Jerusalem, not because the city means something to them, but because it is another move to get the Jews out. How can you make peace, or even negotiate with someone that doesn't want you to exist? Is everyone so politically correct that they don't see the truth? Peace can only be achieved when both sides want it - one side, Israel, cannot do it alone. Obama is only feeding the illusions of the Arabs with his statements - harming Israel and her security in the process. But, like all leftists - he is blind to the truth. Doesn't matter how old you are - the truth is the truth. Learn and grow.
"...Peace can only be achieved when both sides want it - one side, Israel, cannot do it alone. Obama is only feeding the illusions of the Arabs with his statements - harming Israel and her security in the process. But, like all leftists - he is blind to the truth. Doesn't matter how old you are - the truth is the truth. Learn and grow."
Hold on a sec' while I go get my waders so I can slog through the horse manure. Ahh, there, thats better. Now then, whats all this about; "Peace can only be achieved when both sides want it"? I love it. So emblematic of shtetl behaviour, really a study in disingenuity, this taking credit for the efforts of other Jews, regardless of the contempt and disdain you have for their efforts as long as those efforts are seen in a favorable light by the mainstream. This goes for any of the "goyische" profesions that Jews occasionally take part in such as professional sports, service in the military (The US military, not the IDF), political success, etc. Of course, as one might expect, the flip side to this is a complete distancing of the community in the evnt the Jew in question fucks up. In which case its Adios Amigo. Bernard Madoff anyone? As longs as the golden jew kept laying the golden eggs, everyone was happy, the minute he stopped, the guy practically ceased to be a jew. But I digress. While not crediting the Palestinians with any super-human efforts in the quest for peace, this pre-supposes that YOU want peace more than they do, which if the actions of those that you support are any indication, is clearly not the case.
You should know, this thing where you label people leftists(read secular jew, Democrat, Labour party member, anti-semite, etc)in order to marginalize them and their opinions actually has the opposite effect. In your bid to over-simplfy and stifle debate, you expose your insecurities and your weak hand. Play poker much? Thats your "tell".
Alan, you need help, man. For the sake of God and your loved ones (should you have any), you need to see a doctor. shalom
the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people
do you fully understand those aspirations? No Fatah just rebuffed ALL Hamas ditto listen to them nothing fromthem has changed since Arafat stolethe word palestinian
THEYN MEAN AND SAY OUTRIGHT all Jews in the sea, and no Israel at all
peace is a noble goal but when one side will not deal --there can be no negotiations
sorry our children are too ignorant of reality to accept the fact it's them or Jews in ISrael........
spoiled Americans who have not a clue
I support the original two state solution. All lands to the east of the Jordan river are for the Arabs, all lands west of the river are for the Jews for a homeland. Let Jordan, with its large number of "Palestinians" absorb the homeless once and for all time. I am a Jew, married to a Catholic Puerto Rican. I understand the feeling of acceptance that many of us want. But if you really think that "Previously well-defined boundaries between ethnicities, religions and countries are blurring." within the Islamic world, you are very naive, and dangerous to yourselves and the rest of the Jewish community. You are like those in Europe in the 30s who said, "the Germans would never do things like they say". And then suffered when they did. There is all of North Africa and the Middle East for those of the Islamic Faith. Let there be an undisturbed land with the City of David as it's capital for the Jews.
BS
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